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"He claims to be a champion of transparency, but for many years, he’s been helpful to Putin, one of the most repressive and least transparent autocrats in the world," Hillary Clinton wrote. | Matthew Horwood/Getty Images

Clinton calls Assange 'a tool of Russian intelligence'

Hillary Clinton denounced WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange as "a tool of Russian intelligence," speaking out against the organization's role in her 2016 electoral defeat during an interview airing Monday.

The former Democratic presidential nominee told Australian Broadcasting Corp. that Assange — whose whistle-blowing organization unloaded a trove of Clinton campaign emails in 2016, plaguing her candidacy for months — had “become a kind of nihilistic opportunist who does the bidding of a dictator,” Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a report by The Associated Press.

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She added: “He’s a tool of Russian intelligence, and if he’s such a ... martyr of free speech, why doesn’t WikiLeaks ever publish anything coming out of Russia?”

The former secretary of state has been outspoken in her criticism of the role Russia's influence campaign played in her loss to President Donald Trump last year, as well as that of WikiLeaks, the site where numerous emails from her then-campaign chairman, John Podesta, were revealed. In her recently released tell-all book, Clinton took particular aim at Assange, calling him "a hypocrite who deserves to be held accountable for his actions."

"He claims to be a champion of transparency, but for many years, he’s been helpful to Putin, one of the most repressive and least transparent autocrats in the world," Clinton wrote.

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Assange has publicly denied allegations that his organization is an arm of Russian propaganda. On Monday he fired back at Clinton's comments, tweeting that she was "not a credible person."

“It is not just her constant lying. It is not just that she throws off menacing glares and seethes thwarted entitlement,” he wrote. “Watch closely. Something much darker rides along with it. A cold creepiness rarely seen.”

WikiLeaks has come under fired from the intelligence community and drawn the scrutiny of ongoing congressional probes into 2016 Russian election interference. CIA Director Mike Pompeo called WikiLeaks a "hostile intelligence service" and former FBI Director James Comey denounced them as "intelligence porn."

Roger Stone, a former Trump associate who has boasted of his ties to WikiLeaks, testified on Capitol Hill in September relating to the ongoing Trump-Russia probe.